52 TEMPERATUEE OF WATEK. 



up, any time from ten to tliree is good. Make it a gener- 

 al rule to feed slowly and give them as much as they will 

 eat without wasting. 



The question has often been asked us whether salt food 

 agrees with them. We only know that our fish will not 

 take it much, and it does not seem to agree with them. 

 Still as Trout will live and thrive surprisingly in salt water 

 we suppose they will, in time, relish it, although eating 

 food found in salt water and eating what is commonly 

 termed salt food are things very different in degree. We 

 do not recommend its use. For many, curd is a much 

 cheaper food for adult Trout. The farmer who keeps 

 cows will find it an advantage to tuni his cream into but- 

 ter and feed the curd to his fish. 



Temperature of Water. — The colder the water is, down 

 to forty degrees, the better will the Trout do. They will 

 die in the ponds if the water raises to sixty-eight degrees, 

 unless there is a spring in the pond, or colder water into 

 wdiich they can get. We have often heard or seen the 

 statement that fish could be kept in a frozen state a long 

 while, and then thawed out and be as lively as ever. Our 

 experience says no. Fish may be frozen, so that a thin 

 scale of ice forms over them, and so long as they can be 

 bent they will thaw out and will recover ; but if tliey are 

 once frozen solid or stiff throughout, they are dead, and 

 cannot be brought back to life. If the ponds freeze over 

 in winter, it is no sign that the water under the ice is below 

 thirty-two degrees. If it was, the water in the ponds 

 would freeze solid. Unless the water is taken close to a 

 spring and much water runs through the ponds, the sur- 

 face will freeze over ; but this will not injure the fish, as 

 the water below will be much warmer than the tempera- 

 ture of the atmosphere ; and the ice which forms over the 

 pond serves to keep the water below from being made 



